The Cubs return to action tonight after hurricane ike displaced thier series wth the Houston Astros to Milwaukee, WI….just 90 miles north of Wrigley Field. Though the Astros will bat as the “home team” the decided advantage lies with the Cubs. The Cubs have won their last five at Miller Park including a four game sweep of the Brewers to close out the month of July. The Astros however are going for their seventh straight aginst the Cubs.

Hurricane Ike may have been a momentum killer for the Astros who were on a tear and won 14 out their last 15 games, while the Cubs had been struggling. One Cub in particular, Carlos Zambrano had issues as of late including a missed start with shoulder tendenitis. Zambrano has had a 12 day layoff and should be rested and ready to take on Randy Wolf.

The Brewers will find themselves in an unfamiliar position of rooting for the Cubs in their own stadium. What ever you want to call what the Cubs have been doing lately with your choice of one of the “c” words, you have to classify what the Brewers have been doing as “c” squared. They have let everyone including the Astros back into the Wild Card race in the NL. The Astros sit just two back, whereas they were 11 games back on August 27…just 18 days ago.

The Cubs magic number is down to 10 for the division and 8 for the wild card. As we have said before…Sunday is a tough day for us to chat, but we will try to check in later on the PDA to see if anyone is here. But, between flipping between football, baseball, and NASCAR and juggling family responsibilities (today is my daughter Sarhah’s first birthday…Happy Birthday Sarah!) we are more inclined to say enjoy your weekend…hopefully the game on Monday is actually shown on WGN.

100 Year Itch Welcomes Back the Posts of The Wisdom Cube…Read this Rant and then Join the Game Chat Below

So Zambrano’s not the only Carlos in Chicago on the DL. Sources say that White Sox MVP Candidate Carlos Quentin will undergo wrist surgery and miss at least 2 weeks, possibly the rest of the year. You’re thinking, hey, who cares about the White Sox? Well, if you wanted to know my thoughts on this, I dedicate this little song to the White Sox trolls who love to belittle the Cubs fans. This one goes out to you guys. . .

NA NA! NA NA NA NA! HEY HEY HEY! GOODBYE!!!!!

I know this is probably bush league, but considering the amount of garbage that White Sox fans spew forth, this is justified. Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it, right? Anyways, if you guys need me, I’ll probably be on the ESPN boards. Wishing the Cubs would leave Funkytown and start hitting the damn ball. Especially if they are in Cincy, that’s a hitters park. Bronson Arroyo is due to get lit up at least ONCE this year by our bats, right? RIGHT? He’s unbeaten vs. the Cubs this year! Talk about bizzaro compared to last year when he went 0-3 with a palsy-like ERA of 8.30 I believe! Then again, maybe the day off and some time away from Wrigley will help the bats grow fonder. Or maybe I should stop wishfully thinking. Be like Pacman, Cubbies, MAKE IT RAIN!

Editor’s Note…

Maybe its time we as Cubs fans should get back to being obnoxious. We have done a great job all year being nice to the trolls and the naysayers. We have maintianed our composure, and what do we get for it?? We get fucked with even more. It is September people. The Cubs are up 5 in the division, 9 up in the wild card…we are a virtual lock to make the postseason…the only thing that would prevent it is going without a win the rest of the season.

Fuck the trolls. That is all they are doing is sitting there typing and fucking with us. Responding to their lame shit just keeps them coming back…Guys like ZorChu aka Lian Vue, White Sox fans like Kokkinos, and the others…who the fuck are they, and what do they mean to us? Nothing. These guys live for the drama they create…and thats all these guys are trying to do is keep the drama going.

Lilly goes against Arroyo tonight. Arroyo is due to lose against the Cubs…just like the Cubs are due for a win. Fuck it. I will predict a win. And when it happens, I will say I told you so. I think the Brewers and the Cubs both get their heads out of their asses today. Its going to be good down the stretch.

After his last few outings, anything is possible for Zambrano…Let’s hope he uses this game to get his focus back, and return to the fist pumping adrenelin filled Big Z that we have all come to appreciate. I will be here during the game chatting, so stop by.

The Cubs’ starting pitchers continue to one-up each other. Carlos Zambrano is next in line for today’s series finale.

Chicago starters have tossed six quality starts in a row, starting with Ted Lilly in the series opener against Milwaukee on Monday. Zambrano, the staff ace, looks to make it a week’s worth of strong outings in today’s finale against Pittsburgh.

Well it’s worth saying the Cubs offense came back to life, not as much as what they are capable of but none the less we will take it after being shutout the first game of the series, one hitter Ive noticed in the Cubs lineup that is not “breaking out”or to put it simple, not hitting, I’m talking about D.Lee. He has just been awful since the All-Star break, according to baseballreference.com D.Lee has had eight hitless games since the break. He is a main guy in this Cub lineup and like Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, he can carry a team on his shoulders when he gets hot, but D.Lee still takes his walks and brings that gold glove so even though he is not “on fire” at the plate he is still doing a decent job.

Looking ahead to today’s game:

Carlos Zambrano

#38 RHP

(12-4) 2.80 ERA 96 SO

Cubs: Zambrano struck out a season-high nine batters in a win over the Brewers in his last start. Big Z threw eight scoreless innings, giving up five hits and two walks. He also hit an RBI single. Zambrano now is batting .349 — and ranks among the NL leaders with a 2.80 ERA. He is 1-0 in two starts against the Pirates this year, facing them in back-to-back starts in late May. He went 4-1 in July, giving up seven runs over 35 1/3 innings.

Ian Snell

#45 RHP

(4-8) 6.04 ERA 90 SO

Pirates: Snell had arguably his best outing of 2008 against the Rockies at PNC Park his last time out. He struck out eight and walked only one on his way to a quality seven-inning performance. Manager John Russell said he hoped the start is a turning point for Snell. The right-hander hadn’t won a game since June 11. Snell is 1-5 with a 5.26 ERA against the Cubs in his career.

Ian snell has not faced the red hot Jim Edmonds this year but in his career against snell he has had 17 at bats against snell,out of his 17 at at bats he only has four hits but two of the four have been homeruns,so he might remain hot and crack a HR against snell today if he is in the lineup,another player who snell has not faced this year is Alfonso Soriano but in Soriano’s career against Snell he has lit him up in limited at bats against him going 6-12 with 3 homeruns and 5 RBI’s so look for him to remain hot and spark the Cubs offense today.

Another game that on paper with are Ace going would suggest a blowout,but as we saw in game one of this series,its anybody’s game for the taking,Carlos Zambrano will look to improve to 13-4 and continue his Cy Young like year.

The Cubs made it two straight over the Milwaukee Brewers tonight winning three in a row for the first time since the beginning of the month. The Ace v. Ace matchup of Zambrano and Sheets continued to be a one sided affair with Zambrano improving his head to head record against Sheets to 4-1.

While it was a well pitched game through five innings, with the Cubs holding a 1-0 lead, it all came unravled for Sheets in the top of the 6th. The Cubs started the inning with six straight hits that dulled the pencils of anyone keeping score in their souvenir program…Lee – Single, Ramirez – Double, Kosuke – Triple, DeRosa – Single, Fontenot – Single, Soto – Single, Zambrano – Single, Soraino ending the hit parade with a Sacrifice RBI to center. In all the Cubs sent 10 men to the plate while chasing Sheets. It would be all the Cubs need to insure what ended up being an easy victory as they went on to an easy 7-1 victory.

When exactly could you begin to feel that it was the Cubs night? The top of the first inning was the indicator. Ben Sheets is virtually automatic when he has a hitter at 0-2 in the count…hitters holding a .133 BA v. Sheets with that count. Theriot banged out a single to center, stole second, and ended up at third on a throwing error. The hit ended up being meaningless in the box score, but it went a long way in dictating how the team would handle Ben Sheets….damn the statistics – wait for your pitch…when you get your pitch – drive the ball. It worked all night. With a 7-1 score you would expect HRs, but the Lou’s Crew did it all by being patient and manufacturing runs. It appears that the Cubs (not really- but literally) took the advice of 100 Year Itch and finally got out of their own way.

Game three – nationally televised on ESPN…morning preview….much analysis…and maybe even a guest post as well.

Many pundits are acting as if the winner of this series will go on to capture the NL pennant. Reality is, the winner of the final ten matchups between the Cubs and the Brewers will likely determine only who wins the division, and who gets the wild card birth.

I am not downplaying the signfigance of those coveted two spots in the “There’s Only One October” sweepstakes…The Cubs have been as close to unbeatable at home as you can get – But home field advantage has been eqaully as good for virtually the entire NL…in fact, only three teams the Brewers, the Cardinals, and the Phillies have winning road records. Among contenders, the Cubs have the worst road record at eight games below .500…but because of their home record being 25 games over .500, they own the best record in the NL heading into this series. The pressure to win the division and retain home field advantage throughout the playoffs is often the subject of the talking heads on BBTN, but in the year of the home team in baseball, I do not think it has ever been more prevalent.

We get three “nationally” televised games from this series..Tuesday and Thursday on WGN and Wednesday on ESPN. There are way to many story lines to covr for the series, which is why we wil be previewing each game individually. Looking ahead…here are the matchups for each game:

Game One: Lilly v. Sabathia

Game Two: Zambrano v. Sheets

Dempster v. Parra

Harden v. Bush

Game two – the matchup of aces Zambrano and Sheets should be the highlight of the series with Lilly v. Sabathia being a close second. The other two games clearly favor Cubs pitching, but this rivalry is beginning to turn into one of those Cowboys v. Redskins NFL games…No matter the strength or record of th other team, you can throw out the numbers and expect the unexpected.

Is Sabathia due for a letdown? 6-8 with a 3.83 with the Indians and now 4-0 with a 1.36 with the Brewers? He isn’t going to go undefeated and pitch complete games every outing is he? We will check back in our preview later today.

G_miss is the max number of games for which we don’t have data for this matchup
(both players appeared in the game and may have faced each other).
Retrosheet is missing about 200 games from 1956-1973.Yr_miss is the number of seasons for which these two may have faced each other, but we don’t have data (pre-1956).